


Came Around to Tear Your Little World Apart

by Aaronlisa



Category: Dollhouse
Genre: Character Death, Episode: s02e13 Epitaph Two: Return, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-30
Updated: 2017-04-30
Packaged: 2018-10-25 23:40:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10774899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aaronlisa/pseuds/Aaronlisa
Summary: He knows her far too well to doubt the reason of her visit.





	Came Around to Tear Your Little World Apart

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a scene in “Epitaph Two: The Return.” Title comes from "Vow" by Garbage.

_I came to knock you down_  
I came around to tear your little world apart   
I came to shut you up   
I came to drag you down 

She’s dressed in black, leather boots and a leather coat, with a gun in her hand. There’s apart of him that feels like he should be afraid but they’ve done this song and dance so many times, it’s become boring to him. She always comes and shoots him and Clive comes around and puts him into a new body. He sometimes wonders if she’ll ever learn that it’s not about the bodies but it’s about the hard drive. He hopes that she doesn’t because if she does, then maybe he’ll be irreparably broken. Still he’s pretty certain that there’s a few back ups. 

He yawns and stretches, he’ll miss this body but perhaps it’s time for a replacement. 

“Back so soon Echo?” 

She shrugs at him and he wonders if she’ll ever tire of this routine. He doesn’t think so, she’s just like Caroline Farrell: a terrorist with petty little morals to keep her warm at night. She thinks she’s saving the world when he knows the truth; she’s just tearing everything she can get her grasping hands on just because she can. 

“Well what are you waiting for? Isn’t this when you shoot me?” Harding goads her on. 

“Maybe that’s not why I came, this time.” 

”Isn’t that why you always come?” Harding asks her as he laughs at her words. 

He knows her far too well to doubt the reason of her visit. She always comes to Neuropolis, tries to save Topher, fails at that and then shoots him. Yet the longer that she stands there, the more worried he becomes. Even now, Harding is a creature of habit. He likes routine and regularity; this isn’t part of the script. When Echo lowers the gun, Harding breaks out in a nervous sweat. 

“Well come on Echo, I’ve got a new body all lined up, let’s be done with this.” 

This time, his voice is flat and hard. Any trace of joviality has been erased. When she sits down in front of his desk, Harding starts to wonder if her little band of soldiers have finally managed to break down their defenses. 

“Is this what you imagined when you first joined Rossum and started playing God?” Echo asks him. 

“Whatever are you going on about?” Harding replies as he sinks down into the leather chair. 

“When you joined Rossum and you started erasing people and implanting them with different personalities, did you think that the world would come to this?” Echo asks as she waves her hand to encompass their surroundings. 

Harding’s eyes narrow as he takes her in for the first time in ages, perhaps Clive is right to blather on about not ignoring the enemy yet he can’t see anything different about her. Perhaps a tightness around her eyes is a sign of fatigue but they’re at war, they’re all tired, even he is. 

“No it’s not, but it is what is, and I for one intend to enjoy the benefits of the vacuum that you left when you destroyed Boyd Langton.” 

She grimaces at his words and Harding feels a sense of elation for having caused a reaction. There’s only two things that Echo seems to care about: Topher and Langton. He wonders if this is what she had intended when she strapped him with bombs and brought down his house of cards. 

“Is it what you intended, Echo my dear? When you brought down Langton and Rossum is this the world you thought you were creating? I don’t think it was, was it? You were all idealistic about it, too blind to see what you were really doing. Foolish girl.” 

He watches as she suddenly stands up and thinks that he’ll regret not knowing that he somehow managed to wound her for the first time. As she raises the gun, he wonders if this is what always happens between them, this conversation and for a brief moment, Harding realizes he’ll never know if this thought is one that repeats with each of their sessions. He’ll wake up without the knowledge of _this_ precise moment. 

“Wait,” Harding pleads as his hands clench at the edge of his death, 

He doesn’t want to die; he doesn’t want to not know about _this_ conversation with them or what he has learned. Echo merely smiles at him and cocks the gun. The sound is loud in his quiet office and Harding wants to beg her to spare him this time, just this once, to give him this knowledge. Not the knowledge that he wounded her with his words, but this knowledge of knowing what being mortal is like. He hasn’t felt it in so long and even though his fear tastes acrid in his mouth, he wants to cling to it, to feel how precious life is. 

“Ple…” 

The words are cut off when she fires her gun and he collapses to the desk, the last thing that he sees is the sadness written on her face before it all fades away. 

* * *

“Did I fall asleep?” 

“For a little while,” Topher absently states. 

It’s the only part of the script that they’ve kept. The call and answer to ensure that it was a successful transfer. Clive is standing to the side, his arms folded against his chest and a frown on his face. Harding rolls his eyes as he lifts himself out of the chair. He’s in a woman’s body again, meaning that Clive is either punishing him for some indiscretion or there were no suitable male dumb shows to put him in. 

“What was it this time?” 

“Echo.” 

Out of the corner of his eye, Harding sees Topher stiffens and the smirk on his face widens in delight. The fact that Echo was here and didn’t rescue him is something that they can use to work in their favour when it comes to Topher’s reluctance to do the job they need him to do. 

“That’s two months in a row.” 

“Yes and perhaps next time you can use the gun that you keep in your desk drawer, the one for purposes such as this.” 

“Have you ever thought that I don’t have the time to do so?” 

“Perhaps if you didn’t disable the cameras in your office, I’d be able to make that judgment call for myself.” 

Harding shrugs in response. He doesn’t bother to argue with Clive about the fact that he’s not been turning the cameras off in his office. He doesn’t want to worry the other man about the fact that Echo’s little band of soldiers is becoming more adept at breaking in and taking what they want and need. He’s certain that it’ll only be a matter of time before she steals Topher away. Not that it’ll matter when she does, but still Clive seems to think that Echo saving Topher is a bad thing so Harding keeps his mouth shut as he figures out how to adjust to his new body. 

((END))


End file.
